West Africa

Terrorist group suspected in disappearance of ninety school girls

More than ninety missing school girls in Nigeria—thought to have been abducted by Boko Haram—show that while the militants may have largely been defeated militarily, Boko Haram remains alive and well in Nigeria, according to an Atlantic Council analyst.

According to J. Peter Pham, vice president for regional initiatives and director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, the “iteration of Boko Haram the military force was defeated. However, Boko Haram evolved and it has become a more classical terrorist group.” Pham described how Boko Haram has “increased suicide bombings and—if this kidnapping is confirmed—returned to mass kidnappings as well.”

On Thursday, January 11, the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center hosted Mr. Bilal ag Acherif, former executive president of the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), for a private roundtable discussion on the status of the Azawad movement, the role of state and non-state actors in security affairs across the Sahel, and his hopes for the peace process in northern Mali.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rudy Atallah, a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, described this relationship as “not robust.” The consequences have been deadly.

“Whenever you do operations in and around villages outside of your base, not having adequate intelligence is very dangerous. Unfortunately, October 4th proved that and we lost four very brave men because of it,” said Atallah, whom US President Donald J. Trump almost picked to serve as the senior director for Africa in the National Security Council.

On October 4, a small group of US troops and their Nigerien counterparts were ambushed by dozens of militants while returning from an intelligence-gathering operation. Four US soldiers and four Nigeriens were killed.